


How Do You Hate Your Own Name So Much?

by hisfoolishgirl



Series: A Marked Set of Kids [1]
Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, And that's a big reason of him hating to be a kid, Asexuality Spectrum, But - to be fair - not really an alternative to be found of such in the English language, Cause Conan's not allowed to call anyone by just their name, He deserves to be treated better, Horrible misuse of Japanese honorifics, M/M, Or at least my most valiant attempt at such, Other, Platonic Soulmates, Romantic Soulmates, Shinichi deserves to be happy, So - I'm just gonna roll with it, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, They are soul mates because they complete so they are both sorts, it's just fluff really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 00:15:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15545382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hisfoolishgirl/pseuds/hisfoolishgirl
Summary: 'Bakaito' appeared on Shinichi's thigh a year before 'Boy' etched itself onto Kaito's back.It would take just a little bit longer, and maybe a bit of confusion, before they understood why those were the vilest names their soul mates had been called.





	How Do You Hate Your Own Name So Much?

It was a heist that they first met at. Of course it was a heist. But, as Kaito threw KID’s jacket on the back of the chair in the KID lair, he knew he’d known Conan’s name before the small detective had told it to him. 

He rolled up his sleeve, and his fingers trembled as they brushed over the ink that was there without explantation. Without the typical explanation that tattoos were supposed to have.

_ Conan Edogawa  _ was his soul mate - and he had started hating his name a month ago. 

His fingers quaked as he unbuttoned his shirt. Slowly so he could pretend to have some control over his desperation. His shoulders shook as he struggled to take it off. His steps were a patter as he walked over to the full length mirror. He twisted. 

_ Boy.  _ And every variation of the term covered his back. His eyes brushed over the ones that he couldn’t reach.  He had wondered how his true love could hate his age. 

Now, he knew why, and he found himself hating it as well. He wanted to talk to Conan, and ask him why he was so smart so clever. Nothing more then that. But he wouldn’t, he didn’t know what name - if any - were etched in return on that small boy’s form. Conan hadn’t given away any sort of recognition during their conversation. 

Not that Kaito had either, but Conan  _ had _ led with his name. He’d only had the option to lie,  _ lie _ ,  _ lie _ , in the face of it. After all - True love or not - he couldn’t let the boy know. 

Conan had a right to a childhood, and Kaito would wait. Even if all he wanted from the boy was the story behind the names that covered him without his permission.

After all, soul marks only covered the skin of a lover when they were the vilest things told to the one that completed their soul.

 

* * *

 

 

Shinichi’s fingers traced over the single mark he had that confirmed his soul mate wasn’t Ran Mouri. 

_ Bakaito. _

It had appeared on his skin a year before turning into Conan, and the small mark lined the interior of his thigh. As Shinichi, he’d told her. It was only fair to her. Letting her know that she wasn’t the one that completed his soul. He didn’t show it to her, and she still cried over the fact.

Shinichi could understand in his head why she’d reacted that way. Her parents were soulmates and she would bend heaven and earth in trying to get them back together because of that simple fact. She believed that romance and a relationship was what soul marks meant happened between two people. But his heart didn’t see the same thing. Being complete didn’t mean a relationship to him. Not like that. Not like how the movies and stories made it out to be.

His mother’s mark matched that of a former teacher she’d had - not her husband, Shinichi’s father - and there wasn’t a soul that had seen them together that would have guessed at that fact. His mother had told him the truth before he’d ever started school.

Ran’s belief in soulmates blinded her. Her parents were soulmates. They were meant to be together. To Ran it was as simple as that. Shinichi had told her once that maybe they completed each other - only when they weren’t living under the same roof. There was more then one way to love someone. What people said people needed wasn’t always what they’d actually needed. And, perhaps, for them, they didn’t need a cookie cutter house and life to be whole - just as long as they had their lives touching each other - it would be enough for them then.

He had only voiced the thought once. It was clear it wasn’t appreciated, and that response made it even clearer to him that she could never have been the one to complete him. In any sort of a way. Ideas, and the exploration of the why behind an action, were the things that drove him. To be afraid of them or of questioning them was what he needed in his partner. Nothing else. Nothing more. Nothing less. 

He just needed a mind to go with his own. Anything else that was to happen between himself and his ‘Bakaito’ - for lack of a better name for the soul on the other end of it- was for them to decide. 

And then, after telling Ran, he forgot about the mark.

 

* * *

 

The small mercy of the mark’s location, hidden from his gaze as it was, meant that after he was shrunk and when Ran would drag him over to the females side - she never saw the mark on Conan. She would have tried to set him up with anyone that flinched at being calling the oddity that was the name his soul mate had scribed on his skin.

 

* * *

 

It was after after the heist with the Black Pearl that Shinichi heard the name on the streets of Tokyo. He was holding Ran’s hand at the time, and he was already staring at the couple walking towards them. They looked like a near mirror to Shinichi and Ran. It hurt his heart to look at them, but he couldn’t look away at the time. Ran was pointedly ignoring them. She had already told everyone that she’d seen Shinichi, and it was now a source of personal indignation that it wasn’t him.

“Bakaito,” Slipped out of the lips of Ran’s twin, and Shinichi stopped. Ran didn’t let go of his hand. She had stopped to stare at them as well.

His soulmate was smiling. It was a loving name that was given to him out of jest. 

It was the vilest thing he’s ever been called.

Conan swallowed, “Ahouko,” The man with no name quipped, “I believe that the KID Killer’s presence at the heist last night was the only reason that anyone got a glimpse of-”

‘Ahoko’ noticed their stares before he did. They stopped in front of Ran and Shinichi, “Um?” He started, “Is there something-”

“Did she just - Did she just call you Bakaito?” Ran sputtered.

He paled, and she frowned, “Yeah? Why?”

“Oh, it’s nothing-” He interrupted.

“Nee, nee,” Conan interrupted, “You were talking about the KID heist last night, weren’t you?”

He stopped breathing as his gaze finally drifted down to him, but it was followed by a smile that Shinichi recognized from the event in question, “As a fan of KID himself,” The boy answered, “You will find that I’m always talking about KID.”

“That’s what makes Kaito  _ Bakaito _ ,” The girl growled, and Conan couldn’t hide his wince as he felt his mark bite into his tender flesh again. Shinichi couldn’t blame him for hating the name even more. Luckily, Ran was staring at Bakaito and Ahoko the same, “Only an idiot would cheer for the criminal!”

Kaito, oh he finally had a name for his soul mate, hadn’t looked away however, “Why does it matter to you?” He asked with a venom. His eyes took his anger to Ran.

Shinichi knew then what name had to be on Kaito’s skin because that anger hadn’t been at Conan.

“Shi-Shinichi had it marked on his thigh,” Ran sputtered. She frowned. Kaito turned to look at the street. He knew, and he knew better then to look at Conan.

“Shinichi, huh?” Kaito whispered, “First name to my soul mate?”

Ahoko stilled beside him, “Kaito?”

He smiled at her, “Aoko,” He whispered, “I told you that my mark had nothing to do with you.”

“B-But a guy? Why didn’t you tell me that?” Aoko’s voice cracked.

A muscle jumped in Kaito’s face, and Conan watched the man smile with ease, “Didn’t think it mattered to you. Was I wrong?”

She smacked him on the arm, “Of course not, but now I feel like a dope for asking if it Akako-”

“Never her,” He shivered.

Aoko smiled and she turned to Ran, “Can we have a last name then-”

Kaito panicked then. He looked flustered and he looked down at Conan, “Not - Not unless-”

Conan beamed, “Don’t worry - We can tell you he’s Shinichi Kudo! Known in the papers as the Detective of the East and Saviour of the Tokyo Police department,” Kaito paled at those words, and Shinichi couldn’t have guessed at the why of that any more then he could have guessed for a reason at why Kaito hated being called Bakaito to the same depths he hated being called Conan, “We can tell you think because we don’t have to worry about you finding him!”

Aoko’s eyes widened, and the crowd composed of three teenagers was looking at him. He was looking at Kaito, and Kaito used the distraction as an excuse to frown down at him. 

This wasn’t news to him. Conan realized, and he was taking it in stride. It wasn’t a fluke what had happened earlier. He had already known his soulmate was a child, and he wasn’t alarmed by the possibility that Conan wasn’t actually such.

He wasn’t relieved by the prospect either. 

Kaito’s stare reminded him of Hattori’s. He was worried about whatever the mess as that Shinichi had gotten himself into. 

He wasn’t just a fan or a school mate. He wasn’t what Aoko thought he was, and that was the answer that Shinichi had been looking for. In whatever the truth of Kaito was, it was the fact that he was hiding it from his childhood friend that caused him to hate her nickname for him so much.

Conan smiled, and his face never wavered around the fast pace buzz that was happening between his ears, “You see? My cousin is off working on a case!” Conan leaned in closer to Kaito, and he bekoned for Kaito to come down like a child to whisper a secert in his ear. Kaito smirked, and he gave a glance to Aoko who was blushing as Kaito bent down to humor the kid’s antics. Conan’s voice couldn’t be heard, but he still didn’t speak the truth. Not blantently, not without what felt like a thousand veils in place, “Although, I still wouldn’t even google search Shinichi-Niisan. You see, he told me the case he’s working on is super dangerous. That’s why he isn’t coming home yet,” He met Kaito’s eyes, and then he decided Kaito - the stranger that had marked his thigh, and carried so many of his own marks in exchange - deserved more then that, “He’s already nearly died once working on the case. At least.”

“Danger doesn’t scare me,” Kaito whispered even softer in response. His breath tickled Shinichi’s neck. “But I’ll heed your warnings.” A puff of smoke appeared between them, and Kaito was holding a blue rose. He had it offered out to Shinichi, “If you see him,” Kaito’s voice was louder now. It was for the girl’s watching them, “Give him this for me will you, eh, Detective?” He asked with a wink. 

Shinichi took it, and he felt the heat on his cheeks as he stared at it, “I’m sure Shinichi-niisan will love it.”

“You’re going to kill the boy making him think about romances!” Aoko cooed, “He’s too young to be involved with such! Give it to Ran to pass on-”

“Oh, oh no!” Ran sputtered, “Conan-kun,” And Conan could barely manage to hide the wince he had at hearing that name again. He didn’t know how Kaito managed it, “Is already going to the Kudo house tonight. He’s going to be going over to the neighbor’s and playing with a friend. He can be trusted to deliver it. He’s mature for his age.”

Aoko laughed, “That makes considering he’s the KID Killer,” She ribbed Kaito, “Your soulmate is cousin to the kiddo that’s trying to arrest you’re idol! How ironic is that?”

Kaito rolled his eyes, but Ran perked, “What do you mean?”

Kaito’s glare cut off Aoko, “She’s referring to the fact that the high school detective in our class doesn’t have any common sense. He,” Kaito’s voice dropped down to a stage whispered, and he leaned in closer to Conan, “He thinks I’m Kaito KID that is.”

Shinichi smirked. A truth for a truth. Answers for answers.

Yeah. Maybe the fates did manage to pair his soul up with the sort that could complete him. 

Shinichi beamed up at Kaito, “That’s silly! KID has been doing heists for decades! I’d only figure that KID was an adult as such.”

Kaito ruffled his hair at that and straightened up. He looked at Ran, and he smiled, “Thank you for eavesdropping,” He told her. She blushed at the truth of the statement, “Best thing to happen to me today.” He turned back to Conan, and he pointed at the rose still in his hands, “If Shinichi isn’t home. Keep it safe for him. Until the flower dies. Got it, kiddo?”

Conan laughed. Not at the jibe, but at the barely concealed wince. Kaito must be covered in names. “Sorry, sorry,” Shinichi mumbled. He beamed up at Kaito, both out of the excitement in the moment.  _ If Kaito KID was his soul mate  _ \-  “I won’t mess this up!”

Kaito winked down at him, “I don’t doubt that fact for a moment, detective,” He motioned for Aoko to take the lead for their departure, “Till the next time then? I’m sure we’re bound to see each other again at a heist. Can’t resist attending ‘em after all?”

Ran nodded, “Ah- Yeah,” She managed at she watched them leave them. She looked down at Conan and the rose in his hands, “What’s the likelihood that Shinichi will be there to take that off your hands?” She asked. Her voice was soft and breaking. 

They might not have meant anything to each other, but it was in his disappearance that Ran had realized just how much that had been because of her own foolish presumption that he would never disappear from her life. _ There had always been tomorrow to apologize  _ \- that what she’d told Conan between her tears a month afterwards.

Conan smiled up at her, “If not. Then we can take care of it, can’t we? Or should I leave it with Ai-chan and the professor?”

Ran laughed softly, “We can take care of a rose, Conan-kun.”

“Ojii-san won’t try to water it with his beer - will he?”

Ran’s laughter was solid after that, and it was an easy banter that they fell into after that. Shinichi noticed on the train ride home that the thorns the rose had had had been removed. He spun it between his fingers til they made it back to the detective agency, “Hey,” Shinichi started before he could second guess the decision he’d made.

“Hm?” Ran muttered as she slide the look into the agency’s door.

“Do you think Shinichi would mind if we pressed it for him? Because then Kaito-niisan,” That felt so wrong on Shinichi’s lips. So wrong. That was never how he wanted to refer to KID again, “Wouldn’t have to worry about if Shinichi is here? We can tell him at the heist what we did, and then he’ll know that his soulmate will have his first token for the rest of their lives?”

Ran smirked, “That’s awfully romantic, Conan. I don’t think Shinichi would mind at all. He’s quite the hopeless romantic after all.”

Shinichi glared into her back at that as she left him in the kitchen. _ Still not over that conversation then, hm? _


End file.
